This December, the cake shop in the lobby of the Sofitel Saigon Hotel is filled with Christmas products. Visiting the cake shop, I really felt like I was somehow a kid again, and that I was in a candy store.

The majority of the cakes in this shop are French, including both traditional and fusion recipes. Sofitel also offers other French staples such as foie gras terrine and duck galantine.

Entering the shop, I saw in the corner pretty and colorful macaroons, which are traditional French sweet bites. There are four kinds of home made macaroons with different flavors such as chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, and vanilla each priced at VND85,000+ per 100 grams.

Next to the macaroons are different kinds of tarts decorated with fresh, vibrant fruit: kiwi, strawberry, mango, and raspberry. This corner is a popular one, with tarts available at this cake shop everyday. There are also jerry tarts, brownies and tiramisu.

The Christmas cake corner is located at the end of the shop. On this occasion, there are traditional cakes as well as cakes with fresh Asian flavors. There are black forest logs decorated with thin slices of chocolate (VND680,000+) and tiramisu logs (VND680,000+). There are also special jasmine & mango jelly logs which are more than 1 kg (VND800,000+), gingerbread houses, chocolate Santa Clauses and ginger and cinnamon Christmas cookies.

"This year, if I choose to buy one Christmas cake for my family, I would choose the Special jasmine & mango jelly cake. The taste and fragrance of jasmine and mango is very Asian and Vietnamese," Pham Ngoc Hai, pastry chef of Sofitel Saigon Hotel told Thanh Nien.

"The special jasmine & mango jelly cake takes at least two to three hours to make. There are many ingredients and each requires a different process and preparation. There are many layers in this cake. The cover layer is chocolate, and the section inside is mango stirred fried with jasmine flowers."

Pham said that Sofitel cake shop will offer these cakes through Christmas.

Besides the sweet corner, there are also other traditional French products for the Christmas season including duck galantine (VND150,000+ per 100 gram); farm house terrine (VND180,000+ per 100 gram); foie gras terrine (VND300,000+ per 100 gram); lobster remoulade (VND320,000+ per 100 gram); and oyster fines de claires (VND180,000+ per six pieces).

The highlights of the savory dishes are the marinated salmon with herbs and vodka (VND240,000+ per 100 gram), the Scallop/salmon/shrimp terrine (VND250,000+ per 100 gram) and the homemade smoked salmon blinis (220,000+ per 100 gram).

The cake shop at Sofitel also promotes local products. There is a corner of made-in-Vietnam ice cream and chocolate.